It's Time for a Paradigm Shift in How We Handle Sexual Assault

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The White House just announced the launch of It's On Us, a national campaign aimed at urging our generation to do more to prevent campus sexual assault.

The stated mission of the campaign is:

To RECOGNIZE that non-consensual sex is sexual assault.

To IDENTIFY situations in which sexual assault may occur.

To INTERVENE in situations where consent has not or cannot be given.

To CREATE an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.

In light of the fact that 1 in 5 women are assaulted while in college, we recorded a video with our friend Taryn Southern to highlight some stats on the frequency of sexual assault on college campuses.

Currently, 67 colleges and universities are under investigation for their questionable handling of sexual assault complaints. The White House has also created a task force to look into the matter, and many advocates are now questioning whether colleges should be in the business of adjudicating serious felony accusations in the first place (given their misaligned interests in maintaining positive public relations).

One step in the right direction? A new "yes means yes" law on the verge of passing in California, which stipulates that sex is only consensual when both involved parties voice "an affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement." Thus, silence, lack of protest, or being impaired by drugs or alcohol does not equal consent, emphasizing better communication between sexual partners. The bipartisan Campus Safety and Accountability Act, sponsored by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Marco Rubio, would also require colleges to publish their sexual assault statistics online so that parents and students can make an informed choice when comparing universities.